Strasbourg, 03.12.2021 – The Committee of Ministers of the 47-member Council of Europe has strongly urged the authorities of Ukraine, at the highest political level, to overcome the current inertia and to hold to their commitment to resolve the recurrent structural problem of overcrowding, poor material conditions in detention, and the lack of effective remedies. It has expressed deep regret about the lack of concrete progress in the implementation of several groups of judgments of the European Court, including the pilot judgment (*) in the case Sukachov v. Ukraine in which the Court had set the deadline of 30 November 2021 for introducing preventive and compensatory remedies as regard conditions of detention incompatible with the requirements of absolute prohibition of ill-treatment under the European human rights convention.

The Committee’s Interim Resolution (**) on these groups of cases was published following its latest meeting to supervise the execution of ECHR judgments.

More than 100 judgments from the European Court against Ukraine are being considered in these groups, underlining the urgent need for reform of the penitentiary system in Ukraine. With the first judgment dating back to 2005, they mainly concern inhuman and/or degrading treatment due to overcrowding, poor material conditions and inadequate nutrition in police establishments, pre-trial detention centres and prisons, as well as during transportation between detention facilities or to courts and lack of effective preventive and compensatory remedies.

The Committee of Ministers has noted that certain steps have been taken by the Ukrainian authorities to improve conditions of detention and a reflection process was initiated on the adoption of domestic remedies for inadequate conditions of detention. However, they are insufficient to disclose concrete progress in these areas, most notably within the deadline specified by the Court, it has stated.

These deficiencies resulting from the malfunctioning of the Ukrainian penal system have serious humanitarian implications for those still in detention and put an additional undue burden on the Convention system, leading to repetitive applications lodged with the Court on the recurring problems, the Committee has noted.

The Committee of Ministers has recalled the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and has reiterated that the obligation to abide by the judgments of the Court under Article 46 of the European human rights convention, entails the obligation for the state to find appropriate means to resolve the problem. It has strongly urged the authorities to adopt, as a matter of priority and without any further delay, the general measures required to comply with the pilot judgment Sukachov v. Ukraine and the specific judgments on various adjacent issues pending execution in these groups of cases.

The Committee of Ministers has encouraged the authorities to take full advantage of the technical assistance available from the Joint Project of the European Union and the Council of Europe in this area and decided to resume consideration of these groups of cases in September 2022 at the latest.

(*) Pilot judgments are delivered by the European Court in cases revealing a structural problem within the domestic system, having systemic repercussions on domestic compliance with a potential of generating numerous new cases on the same subject-matter before the Court. In such cases not only does the Court find a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights in a specific case, but it also identifies the systemic problem and gives the Government clear indications of the type of remedial measures needed to resolve it and in some instances of the time-limit to resolve the problem.

(**) An Interim Resolution is a form of decision adopted by the Committee of Ministers aimed at overcoming more complex situations requiring special attention and additional guidance by the Committee.